Build Your Own Kindergarten Curriculum

You can build your own kindergarten homeschool curriculum with three ingredients: a systematic phonics resource, hands-on math you mostly play, and a tall stack of library read-alouds. That’s the entire academic core for a five-year-old — twenty to forty-five minutes a day of formal work, everything else through play, errands, and being read to. A boxed all-in-one kindergarten program is a convenience, not a requirement, and this is the one grade where skipping it costs you nothing but the shelf space.

“Create your own kindergarten curriculum” was one of the founding ideas of this site’s 2011-era archive, and it’s aged better than almost anything else from that decade — because kindergarten is still the grade publishers overcomplicate most and parents can cover best. I’ve now run kindergarten from both chairs: I was the kindergartner working ahead at the kitchen table, and I’ve taught it twice, with my third coming up. Here’s the honest build.

Reading: one phonics spine, kept short

Pick one systematic phonics resource and do a short lesson most days — five to fifteen minutes, ending before anyone cries. When my eldest was ready, we paired lessons with genuinely decodable early readers; a canonical example is the Bob Books Set 1 box, whose first book uses so few letters it feels like a magic trick when a five-year-old reads the whole thing alone. Whatever spine you choose, the sequencing matters more than the brand — I’ve written the full method in teaching your child to read at home, including what to do when a kid stalls (spoiler: wait).

Math: manipulatives first, workbook second

Kindergarten math is counting, comparing, patterns, shapes, and beginning addition — all of which live happily in objects before they live on paper. A basic set of snap-together counting cubes, like MathLink Cubes in the 100-count set, covers months of this: build towers of ten, compare “trains,” split seven cubes into hands. Add a simple workbook when your kid starts liking the ceremony of writing answers, not before. If you’d rather have a published math program from day one, that’s a fine convenience buy — choose one and go slowly; the first-grade curriculum decisions are where the program choice starts genuinely mattering.

Everything else is a read-aloud

Science, history, geography, art appreciation — at five, these are all the same subject, and it’s called the library. A weekly stack of picture books about volcanoes, knights, whales, and Van Gogh delivers more retained kindergarten “content” than any curriculum I’ve compared, at a cost of zero dollars. Add a nature walk with a magnifying glass, crayons on the table, and a kid “helping” measure flour, and you have covered what boxed kindergarten programs sell as five separate line items.

Second-generation aside: my mother’s version of this in the ’90s was A Beka phonics plus the bookmobile, because that’s what existed. Families choose differently — full boxed programs, secular or faith-based, or pure DIY like this build — and all of those are tools that work in different houses. What hasn’t changed in thirty years is the ratio: the library did most of the work then, and it does most of the work now.

A sample kindergarten day (ours, roughly)

Morning, after breakfast: phonics lesson (ten minutes), math game (ten minutes), handwriting-ish activity (five minutes, sometimes chalk on the driveway). One read-aloud block before lunch, one before quiet hour. Done. The formal total is under forty-five minutes, and on a chaotic day the read-aloud alone still counts as school — a five-year-old’s real curriculum is the household running around them. When you sketch the whole year, one planning afternoon is honestly enough for kindergarten: pick the phonics spine, pick the math approach, and reserve the library card.

What to skip (with a clear conscience)

Skip the kindergarten boxed sets with seven teacher’s manuals; skip formal spelling, formal grammar, and anything with a test; skip the printable-pack treadmill. None of it correlates with a stronger reader at eight — and I say that as someone who did worksheet-heavy kindergarten herself and mostly remembers the workbook smell. Save the money and the goodwill for first grade, when a real curriculum decision actually arrives.

FAQ: DIY kindergarten curriculum

Do you need a curriculum for kindergarten homeschool?

Not a boxed one. A systematic phonics resource, hands-on math, and daily read-alouds cover the academic core. Most states’ requirements at this age (where kindergarten is compulsory at all) concern process rather than specific published programs — verify yours — and no five-year-old needs seven subjects.

How long should homeschool kindergarten take each day?

Commonly twenty to forty-five minutes of formal work, split into short lessons, plus read-alouds and play. If your formal block regularly runs past an hour, the material — or the schedule — is fighting the child, and the child is right.

What subjects should a kindergarten homeschool cover?

Reading (phonics + read-alouds), beginning math, and handwriting in small doses — then science, history, and art delivered through library books and real life. Check your state’s current subject requirements; the short list above satisfies the spirit of nearly all of them at this age.

Is it OK to start kindergarten with a 4-year-old?

If the kid is asking, yes — keep it brief and stop while it’s fun; if they’re not, wait without guilt. The original 2011 post behind this one described a just-turned-four-year-old doing kindergarten work by choice. Readiness, not the birthday, is the signal.